Making Sauerkraut – 2016

They say that your tastebuds change over time.  While that’s probably true, there are certain foods that, as a kid, I just wasn’t interested in even trying.  Sauerkraut is one of those things.  As a kid, it looked gross, smelled gross, and I was sure it tasted gross and was not going to even try it.

As an adult, I decided to give it a chance.  We grow cabbage and when we harvest it, we make lots of cole slaw, cooked cabbage as a side dish, and our favorite way to eat cabbage: we chop it and mix with ground meat and spices and make homemade egg rolls.  One other thing we do is make sauerkraut.  Sauerkraut has numerous health benefits, among them:

Ø  Good source of Vitamin C, A, K, and B,

Ø  Provides iron, copper magnesium and calcium,

Ø  Contains lots of fiber and aids in digestion,

Ø  Boosts your immune system,

Ø  Provides Energy

We have Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions cookbook and follow these simple directions to make 1 quart of sauerkraut (expand recipe as needed):

·         Cabbage

·         1 Tablespoon salt

·         4 Tablespoons whey

First we go out to the garden and pick a nice bid head of cabbage, peeling off the outer leaves and sharing those with the cows.  Sometimes we have to pick a few slugs off of the inner leaves as they like to get in there and feast on the big head.

Nice, big, fat head of cabbage

Then I remove the hard stem and chop up the cabbage into small pieces, putting the cabbage in a large bowl and adding the salt and whey.  The whey is a by-product of making yogurt (kefir) and we always have some in the fridge.  Then, using the head of a meat tenderizer, I begin pounding on the cabbage in the bowl.  Over and over I beat the cabbage, bruising the leaves, causing it to release the juices contained within.  I continue banging on the cabbage for about 10 minutes, so I guess you can say that the act of making sauerkraut has health benefits as well in the form of cardiovascular health and stress-reduction.

Crushing the Cabbage

Next I spoon the cabbage, whey, salt mixture into a wide mouth quart-sized canning jar, packing it in tightly so that the liquid appears at the top of the jar, but allowing 1 inch head space at the top.

Packing sauerkraut into wide mouth jars

Finally, I screw the lid to the jars on tightly and store at room temperature for 3 days, labeling the date on the top of the jar lids.

Sitting at room temperature for 3 days

After three days, I’ll place them in the fridge.  Sauerkraut can be eaten immediately, but we find that it tastes better with age and we try to postpone eating it until it has been in cold storage for a couple of months.  Making sauerkraut has become an annual event for us and we look forward to making and eating it, especially during the hot days of summer as it serves as the cold, fizzy sauerkraut is a refreshing appetizer!